It seems like just yesterday that we were announcing the open applications for the first Land O’Lakes Direct Member Scholarship awards – looking for students entering their first year of college or university who had a relationship to one of our direct member-owners.
And today, we have the pleasure of announcing the four talented students who will each be presented with a $5,000 scholarship to pursue their studies. With strong participation from across the country, representatives from our Member Relations and Foundation teams had a hard choice to select from the pool of applicants. Because of the strength of applications this year, they even chose to select four recipients, instead of three as originally announced.
Recipients were chosen based on the merits of their application: essays, academics and leadership. And without further ado, let’s meet these incredibly talented young people:
Our winners
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Peyton Fernandes – Tipton, California. Peyton will be pursuing Ag System Management at Cal Poly State. He is affiliated with Fernoaks Farms.
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Mary Hintz – Flasher, North Dakota. Mary is pursuing Nursing at the University of Mary in North Dakota. She is affiliated with Robert Hintz farm.
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Jared Schrader – Earlville, Maryland. Jared is going to pursue Molecular Biology at McDaniel College. He is affiliated with Wil-O-Mar Farms, LLC.
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Andrew Wilwerding – Freeport, Minnesota. Andrew will be pursuing Dairy Production at South Dakota State University. He is affiliated with Wilwerding Dairy Inc.
Beyond direct agriculture
As you may notice, our winners span coast to coast in the U.S. (and in between). But they also represent a wide range of interests and academic pursuits. In modern agriculture, we need talented individuals with a wide range of skills in all areas across the spectrum — from those involved directly in agriculture, to those in production and those behind-the-scenes in science and health.
Thank you to everyone who submitted an application for the inaugural year of this new member scholarship offering. And for all the high school seniors out there, next year’s scholarship applications will be posted on the Land O’Lakes Member website in late winter.